Lake Fenton ousts Falcons, 3-1, in regional semifinals|

Published 7:00 am, Wednesday, June 5, 2013

FREEELAND — Freeland may have won the second half against Lake Fenton, but it wasn’t enough to make up for a sluggish start in the game’s first 40 minutes.

The Falcons rallied late after spotting the Blue Devils three first-half goals in Tuesday’s Division 3 soccer regional semifinal, but weren’t able to capitalize on several late scoring opportunities, falling 3-1.

“We just came out flat in the first half, and they got us on our heels and took advantage of it,” said Falcons’ senior forward Tara Padgett, who scored her 101st career goal in the loss.

Freeland ends its season with a record of 14-5. Lake Fenton (17-2-1) will face Flint Powers in the regional final on Friday at 7 p.m. Powers beat Essexville Garber 5-1 in the other semifinal.

Lake Fenton came out aggressively to start the game, using its speed to attack a Freeland team that seemed to be a few steps behind in the first half.

Less than 13 minutes into the game, Lake Fenton star forward Jordan Newman pressured the Falcons’ defense into a turnover, and then a Freeland defender attempted to clear Newman’s pass away but instead deflected it into the corner of her own net. Newman was credited with the goal.

Freeland responded with several offensive attacks and looked poised to control the pace of the game until Newman capitalized on another Falcon turnover, beating a defender and burying a goal in the lower right corner of the net to put the Blue Devils up 2-0.

Newman’s two goals gave her a state-leading 57 goals for the season, and the Blue Devils added to their lead just two minutes later.

Freeland coach Ricco Barassi said Lake Fenton’s second and third goals caught him by surprise.

“I thought the girls had recovered and tried to pick up the tempo again, and then Lake Fenton gets another quick one,” he said. “And then before I know it, there comes number three.”

Lake Fenton made it 3-0 when midfielder Kaitlyn Begley lofted a long shot that deflected off the hands and over the head of Freeland goalie Katie Morrissey.

“We’ve seen them play before, and I was never expecting the shot that went over my goalie’s head,” Barassi said. “It knocked the wind out of my sails a little bit because that came out of nowhere.”

The Falcons came out stronger in the second half, playing more aggressively and making better first touches on the ball. Barassi also changed his team’s formation and defensive strategy in an attempt to control Newman.

“You have to be on her man-to-man. You can’t give her room to breathe,” Barassi said. “At the end I let (senior midfielder) Darby (McCracken) follow her, and we went to a 3-4-3 formation and got one goal back.”

The Falcons’ lone goal came with 18:33 remaining, as Padgett broke through the defense on an assist from Kelsey Ropp to put Freeland on the board.

Freeland’s offense rallied after Padgett’s goal, putting nearly constant pressure on Lake Fenton for the remainder of the game and narrowly missing on several scoring opportunities.

“In the second half, we had better touches and the midfield distributed the ball better and we got more opportunities,” Padgett said. “We could have pulled it out if we would have played like that in the first half.”

Lake Fenton coach Lenny Glasstetter said that he knew the key to beating the Falcons would be to pressure them early.

“We knew coming in that we had to score in the first half before they could make any adjustments,” he said. “They made adjustments in the second half and it was an even game, an exciting game.”

Freeland ended up outshooting Lake Fenton 11-7.

Barassi said the game could have swung in a completely different direction if not for a key few plays.

“We did outplay them in the second half, but it was too little, too late,” he said. “It could have been, should have been, but it wasn’t.”